Recently, many more people have started using AI programs, like ChatGPT, instead of Google. Users have started asking ChatGPT simple questions, research questions, and for recommendations, among other things. Google has even started adding AI summaries to the top of many of its search results. This means users conducting searches through Google often get answers without leaving the results page.
If you own a small business and your business relies on search traffic, this likely has you worried. Things are changing, but this change is relatively slow. For the time being, there are several things you can implement that do not require significant investment.
The first thing to know about AI search engines is that they learn from information that is already available on the Internet. If your website gives a comprehensive description about your business and your services, you are already doing a lot. AI search engines read good content. However, they are not typically interested in marketing language, so it is best to write simply.
The second point is that not every searches are impacted equally. Users of ChatGPT typically will not need to click any links to see a detailed explanation of a concept, or a summary of an idea. On the other hand, searching for a nearby store, or trying to buy an item, or looking for a phone number, still leads the user to an actual web page. The searches that most impact small businesses are exactly the searches that AI cannot yet fully complete.
Microsoft has also released its Copilot AI search tool, and there are a few other small AI searches which have started to appear. It is hard to know which of them will be significant, but they also have a tendency to pull together from the same sources. So, the same recommendations apply for each of these tools. So long as you have an updated, visible website, you have a good chance of being seen in relevant searches.
It would also be foolish to try to change all of your website’s content in an attempt to trick the AI searches, only because they search for differing sources to give relevant answers. AI tools are only useful for keyword-rich content. Websites that rank well in AI tools will always have informative and non-fiction content.
It’s important to pay attention to it, especially for companies that depend on organic search traffic. The next one to two years may show changes in the type of visitors on your website. You may see different questions being asked before purchases, or your traffic will decrease slowly. There is no reason to panic, but it is important to pay more attention to your analytics because patterns will appear different from how they usually are. There will be more anomalous patterns and it will show something that makes it obvious that your audience is changing.
